Num. 14:11-25

"The Lord said to Moses, 'How long will these people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?'"

The Lord was deeply grieved with His people, who had seen His glory and His signs in Egypt and in the wilderness, but who had nevertheless rebelled 10 times against Him. When He told Moses of His intention to wipe out Israel and to rebuild the nation through Moses, Moses tried to persuade the Lord to lessen His punishment, employing a very significant rationale: If the Lord destroyed Israel, Egypt and the other nations would think that He was not faithful nor powerful enough to bring them into their land. God’s contemplated judgment awoke in Moses a personal concern for the witness of Israel to other nations. Do our prayers and actions likewise reveal a concern for how all the nations see the Lord?

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Lingayats of India

Twenty-six years ago, the villagers beat Lingappa (not his real name) when he shared the good news of Christ with them. A second time around, things were much different. As he visited 101 villages in the northern part of Karnataka state, he discovered 27 people following Jesus. While researchers counted only 800 Christians among the Lingayats in 1997, today they have found 3,000 believers, with most of them having come to faith in the past two years.

What has caused so many Lingayats, a high-caste Hindu people, to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior after years of being resistant to the gospel? According to an article in The Commission, it is a result of much prayer and the work of Marty and Jodi Hunter (not their real names). They had several Lingayat believers write gospel tracts using the people’s distinctive symbols and vocabulary. They also trained Lingayat Christians to share their faith. As the Lingayats heard the message from their own people, God touched hearts.

The Lingayats, numbering 9,000,000 in Karnataka, worship only Shiva, one of Hinduism’s main gods. Their name comes from the linga, a fertility symbol they wear to represent Shiva.